Most popular tank at endgame

[GenericMagus]

Just a simple question asking which tanks are most popular at endgame, whether it be running for Expert roulette all the way to Alexander Savage.

I'm interested in knowing which tanks you think people play in terms of popularity.

[Sarcatica]

PLD is for sure the most popular tank in this game and mostly because it's the simplest tank to play, I generally see way more PLDs in most contents. Meta pick on raiding is still WAR for the most part though.

[aleph_null]

For end game raids with two tanks composition, most people want a warrior in one of those two slots, and a paladin or dark knight in the other slot, due to the damage output and utilities they offer. War can generate a lot of aggro in their opener, so the co-tank can provoke off the war and not have to worry about healers/dps ripping aggro off them, and this is especially important for groups without a ninja (which have skills to manage aggro to help the tank). War is also the best off tank as of now, they have utilities that don't rely on incoming damage like the other two tanks and lose the least amount of dps by not tanking (pld/drk have skills that can only be used when they block/parry incoming damage, and drk has mp regeneration buff that activates by getting hit). Most groups aiming to clear savage raids have a war for these reasons.

For the other tank slot, it can be either pld or drk, depending on necessities. Pld has better physical damage mitigation, so it is better at mitigating damage in raids that have a lot of physical damage, while drk has better magic damage mitigation. Drk also has noticeably higher dmg output compared to pld, so they're very preferred in groups aiming for speed kills, even if the raid has a lot of physical damage (since apparently it seems like the extra healer dps afforded by pld's superior physical mitigation can't outweigh the dps difference between drk and pld).

From that you can probably guess that the numbers of pld and drk clearing savage add up to approximately the number of war clearing savage, and for this raid tier due to the amount of magic damage in a12s drk is a lot more popular than pld in raids (though many raiders can and will switch around between pld/drk depending on their parties).

For 4 man dungeons war and drk are both good, while pld is a bit behind due to their lack of aoe dmg skills. I'd say war is better for dungeons though, but I don't have drk lvl'd so I'm not qualified to claim that.

[Atoli]

In expert dungeons and any and all pf parties I usually see 50% DRK, 30% WAR and 20% PLD.

[bounddreamer]

A good one. Just be a good one. Those are always popular.

[Msugi]

@aleph_null In terms of four men contents, I've played all tanks to those high level dungeons over and over again, and I can say that DRK has the EASIEST time in term of pulling enimity. I use DRK on dailies when I feeling a little lazy (Salted Earth + Abyssal/Unleash pretty much do the work), but I'll switch to WAR for a little bit more challenge.

PLD is the worst so far. Being my main class since 2.0 I was always feel something's lacking/boring, eventhough I dont know why since I only level my MRD to get Bloodbath. And you're right, you have to play all of them to truly understand the difference in feel. After playing all of them, now I know why PLD is beginner friendly but the other way around for people who's looking for much more than Halone combo..

[ZioSerpe]

A good one. Just be a good one. Those are always popular.

This is the correct answer.
I would add that having 2 different tanks is better than 2 of the same, but that should be obvious.

Also it might be worth noticing that in terms of skill ceiling probably warrior is the highest, which some might consider a good case for being the best.

[Atoli]

The question was which we think is the most popular (many people like playing it) though, not which one is the best/most sought after

[Msugi]

In expert dungeons and any and all pf parties I usually see 50% DRK, 30% WAR and 20% PLD.

Same goes with me ^

[Faeon]

Yes, I play my DRK in dungeons, its just faster with there AOE. Other than that then its WAR and PLD, even though PLD was my main in ARR, I moved over to WAR when HW released.
But starage, when i go in with my DPS i actually mainly see PLD and WAR